Hybrid silica-gold core-shell nanoparticles for fluorescence enhancement

Abstract

Abstract We demonstrate that SiO2 nanoparticles coated with a gold island film (GIF) provide an efficient plasmonic platform for enhancing fluorescence intensity of chlorophyll-containing photosynthetic complexes. Fluorescence images obtained for single SiO2-Au coreshell nanoparticles mixed with photosynthetic complexes reveal very uniform emission patterns of a circular shape, similarly as observed for bare SiO2 nanoparticles. The fluorescence enhancement of chlorophyll emission for SiO2-Au nanostructures is up to four-fold compared to bare SiO2 nanoparticles and shortening of fluorescence decay indicates its plasmonic origin. For doublets or triplets of core-shell SiO2-Au nanoparticles, the intensity of emission is further increased as a result of hot-spot formation at the interfaces of such assemblies.